045/14 New targeting lists Paris MoU

At its 47th meeting last month, the Paris MoU Committee approved the 2013 inspection results and adopted new performance lists for flags and Recognized Organizations. These lists will take effect from 1 July 2014.

The “White, Grey and Black (WGB) List” presents the full spectrum, from quality flags to flags with a poor performance that are considered high or very high risk. It is based on the total number of inspections and detentions over a 3-year rolling period for flags with at least 30 inspections in the period.

On the “White, Grey and Black list” for 2013 a total number of 75 flags are listed: 46 on the “White list”, 19 on the “Grey list”, and 10 on the “Black list”.

The “White List” represents quality flags with a consistently low detention record. Compared with last year, the number of flags on the “White List” has increased by 1 flag to a total number of 46 flags. New on the “White List” are Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, which were still on the “Grey List” last year.

France has been placed highest on the list in terms of performance. The next in line of the best performing flags in 2013 are Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Italy.

Flags with an average performance are shown on the “Grey List”. Their appearance on this list may act as an incentive to improve and move to the “White List”. At the same time flags at the lower end of the “Grey List” should be careful not to neglect control over their ships and risk ending up on the “Black List” next year.

On this year’s “Grey List” a total number of 19 flags is recorded, the same as in the year before. New on the “Grey List” are Georgia, Lebanon, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Libya and Albania, which were last year still on the “Black List”.

The poorest performing flag is the United Republic of Tanzania (high risk), followed by Honduras, Dominica, and Togo (medium to high risk).

A flag’s ranking is taken into account when targeting ships for inspection and ships flying flags listed on the “Black” and “Grey” list are liable for banning from the region after multiple detentions.

The Paris MoU also agreed on the performance listing of Recognized Organizations (ROs). ROs have been delegated with statutory responsibilities by flag States. This list uses the same method of calculation as the flag State table but counts only those detentions, which the Paris MoU considers to be directly related to a statutory survey carried out by the Recognized Organization and a minimum number of 60 inspections per RO are needed before the performance is taken into account for the list. In 2013 36 ROs are recorded on the performance list. ( Paris MoU – RO Performance Table (2011-2013) )

On 1 July 2014 the performance lists will be used for calculating the ship risk profile and flags on the “Grey List” and “Black List” are subject to the more stringent banning measures in force since 1 January 2011. More information can be found in the 2013 Annual Report, which will be released in July 2014.